Relativity Falls, the Series
by iFlareoniam
Summary: The story of Gravity Falls, told through alternate eyes. Stanford and Stanley Pines go to stay with their Great Aunt for the summer in a strange town called Gravity Falls. They start having adventures and fun explorations, but something deeper mysteries within this town. I did not make the Relativity Falls au, or Gravity Falls, this is just my version of it.
1. Gift Wrapped Travels

Summer Break. The words every student waits to hear from the beginning of the school year. The time for cookouts with family and seeing who can dive into the dirty pool better. The time when you come out of hiberation and sometimes actually do things with friends, or even just sitting in your own house waiting for the newest thing. A time where everyone wants to relax in peace.

Although there won't be much relaxing for Stanley and Stanford Pines here.

They had been sent out for the summer with their Great Aunt, or as she said to call her, 'Grauntie Mabel'. The kids didn't actually know her at all, but she did spoil them often with small gifts and anything she could afford to feed them if someone had a hankering for specifics. The downside to being there was that she asked them to help take care of the place they lived in, which was half house, half shoddy tourist trap. It was called The Mystery Shack, filled to the brim with fake 'beasts' and cheap gifts designed to take your money nefore you even stepped in the door. Of course, because Mabel was so kind and was extremely generous in her discount policies, even more people came and spent more money often.

Stanford wasn't having a great time, though. As nice as it was, everything felt normal and bland. Like everyday life, nothing interesting or weird happening. But everywhere he looked, something strange seemed to happen. Things such as, his latest theory being that the mailman, who was very hairy and never seen at night, and especially on full moons, was a werewolf. He was always interested in finding these sorts of creatures, and all sorts of weirder things. He loved to watch shows where people explored to small, lesser known places and would study or find some strange beast. So when twelve-year-old Ford heard they'd be going to this small, woodsy town for the summer, he imagined about a true exploration adventure with his twin brother, Stanley. Yet all they've done in the past week was sit in the Shack doing chores or watching tv. Even now, he was raking the pine needles and sticks outside.

"Grauntie Mabel, can I go back out to the forest now?" he asked, turning back to beg her with big eyes. "I'm finished with the raking."

She smiled down to him and ruffled his thick, brown hair. "Of course, Sweetie. But-" She reached into her bag and pulled out some fliers. "You'll need to do me a favor! Trust me, if I had the time I would do it. And take your brother with you, stay safe! And don't get lost!"

Ford tried not to groan, at least he could go. He was sure Stanley would agree and help him, too. He was very protective and caring towards him, even though he got into too much trouble with others. And while he would've wished he could handle things himself, Ford liked that he had Stanley to have his back.

He took the handfuls of papers around to the front of the Shack and looked around for the boy. He found him trying to burn ants with his new watch, unsuccessfully. "Ley! We have to go do a chore for Grauntie! We're going into the woods!" he called.

Ley leaped right up and sprinted over. "Are you sure we HAD to? Or is this another excuse to go to the forest?" He crossed his arms and smirked. Ford tried to keep a straight face and tipped his chin up slightly.

"No, we really have to! M told me to get this job done!... The forest is just a bonus?" he smiled awkwardly and shrugged.

Ley shrugged back and tore about half the stack of fliers out of his hands. "Alright, SURE. Let's get going then, poindexter!"

They split up and spent the next hour or so out amoungst the trees. Ford was disheartened that, again, nothing new was happening. He sighed and muttered to himself, "I guess there really is nothing new out here to find." Grabbing another paper from now-thin stack, he stopped by the next tree and held the flier up. When he hit the hammer against it, there was an echoing metalic clang rather than the usual "bonk" noise from the wood.

His eyes widdened. "I've discovered something! I really have!" Shaking excitedly, the child smiled and dropped the hammer and papers. He felt the trunk to see if it really was a metal tree. His fingers found the edge of a cold door. Pulling the other side of it, the small door creaked with age. It mustve been made by a person, rather than a new kind of tree...

Still intrigued however, he reached in past the cobwebs and felt something. Lifting it out carefully, he looking over a book wrapped up in a thin red sheet. Beneath the sheet, the book was the same red shade and made out of leather, with golden edges made of metal on each corner. A glass eyepiece fell out while he unwrapped it. Turning it over, the cover had just as much tear as the rest, with only a mapping of the big dipper constellation marked with a "3" inside the scoop.

Ford opened the book slowly and felt the old looking pages. Who was the person that made this? It was filled with beautiful drawings and clean, crisp handwriting. He sat down in the grass and found himself lost in the stories of beasts and monsters, and the fact that they were said to live right in this very town. His excitment peaking, he flipped through and found half of it was empty, the last page that was written on a mess of ink stains and blotted out sentences, the only legible writings stating, '-I was wrong! Nobody is safe, everyone is possibly him in disguise! Keep your minds safe, keep your bodies pure! TRUST NO ONE'

"Hey!" He jumped and almost dropped the book. Stanley was coming up from behind him with no more papers, just a curious look in his eyes. "What'cha got there?"

"Well, uh, i-it's nothing," Ford stammered. Ley just laughed uneasily at his response.

"What? You really won't show me? I'm hurt!" Stanley sat down beside him. Ford calmed down and put the book back on his lap.

"Sorry... I... You just really startled me is all. This book... It's like some sort of journal that has all these great things, all of them in or around this town! Did you know there are gnomes, bigfoots, fairies, and things called 'Leprecorns' in these very woods?"

"Woooah... What's a Leprecorn?"

"Part Leprecaun, part Unicorn," he turned back to the page and held it up for Ley.

"I think we should go find it! Maybe Grauntie Mabel will listen to me finally about exploring and it will even help her business to find some of these things!" Ford said with a wide grin on.

"Well then, let's get goin' bro!" Ley jumped up with a hand out to help his brother up, too. "Where to, Captain Nerd?"

'Captain Nerd' giggled and looked in the chapter. "Let's see, we need to go this way first towards a river..."

What a mistake.

Ford had been too focused on reading the directions and descriptions of the journal, that he hadn't been paying any attention to whether he was going the right way. He assumed Stanley was in the lead as usual, but he should've realized that he was the one leading this time.

"Why are we stopping?" Ley whispered. "Are we where the thing-a-corns are?"

He bit his lip. "I...don't think so..."

Ford turned to see him looking surprised. "Why not? Did ya read the instructions wrong? Maybe you should've let me read them."

He frowned and snapped back, "Maybe you should've asked and led then!"

This time, Ley actually looked hurt. But before he could respond, the ground started to shake to a small degree. The boys looked down at their feet and saw rocks moving little by little. It grew in intensity slightly but still remained very weak.

They looked back up at eachother. "I think its an earthquake!" Ley was getting very unsettled now and looked around wildly.

"It seems small, I'm sure it won't be a-" Ford was interrupted as what could be possibly hundreds of tiny men jumped out of the surrounding bushes and trees to enclose them in a circle. The twins stood back to back immediately while they stared dumbfounded at the small men.

One of them with brown hair and a brown beard that was shorter than the others' gray hairs stood before them. "What are you doing here? I thought we had an agreement! No human comes in our land...without a beautiful Queen Offering!" He looked honestly upset that there was no girls with them.

Ford leaned back towards Ley. "I think these are the Gnomes... How did we end up here?" He shrugged as his face cleared from shock to annoyance.

"Whatever they are, if they don't leave us alone I'm gunna hit'em first and pound 'em good!"

With the gnome seemingly in-charge still waiting for an answer, Ford cleared his throat and tried to speak louder. "I-I'm sorry sir, we hadn't meant to go this way, honest! We w-were reading the directions to another place and mistepped. We've been out here all day, and would really appreciate it if you could let us go back to our home..."

The gnome looked thoughtful for a minute and stroked his beard before nodding. "Yeah, ok. I personally get lost every other day! Don't worry about it I guess, since you'll leave us alone we'll leave you alone. My name is Jeff, and I'm like the king around here, basically. If you tell me where you live, I can get you back there!" Ford smiled and held back a sigh, about to agree.

Before he could, unfortunately, Ley punched the gnome 'king' in the face. He turned to his brother and with his mouth gaped wide. Jeff got back up quickly, holding his nose. "Ow! OW! You know what? I've changed my mind! You're enemies! Garden variety gnomes! ATTACK!" Immediately every gnome around them hissed and jumped at them. As they were jumping, the twins were able to run through and escape any harm.

"WHAT was that?" Ford screamed at Ley. He looked a bit shamed and bent his head down.

"I'm sorry, I was getting more an' more stressed out and I had to hit something!" he looked back up to meet his brother's glare. "Besides, what if they didn't keep their promise to leave us alone?"

He sighed and kept running, the sounds of the hissing and stomping getting further away. Ley looked back and giggled. "Y'know what? I'm sure we're safe, did you see their legs? Suckers were tiny! They couldn't keep up with-"

A loud screech filled the air as the stomping got immediately louder. Both boys looked back again, to see a giant monster that appeared to be a 25 foot tall gnome made out of individual gnomes that was rushing towards them. They ran even faster, screaming in unison now.

Stanford started to tear up and broke his screams. "I'm sorry! I should've just finished our job and we could've been in and out of here safely! Or payed more attention to the directions in the book! Or not asked to come out here at all! This is all my fault!"

"Don't! Don't you dare!" He saw that Stanley was trying not to cry, too. "We're going to get to Grauntie and maybe she can help us! And if we don't, then we can do this ourselves and make it back anyways!" He started looking around as they ran, and stopped suddenly. Ford stopped too and looked back.

"Why are we stopping?!" He said. Ley ran over to a pile of junk.

"Look! This could help, right?" he crouched and pointed at it. On closer inspection, the 'pile' was really just a golf cart, dirtied and almost broken down in some spots.

"How can that help? It's gotta be empty on gas and broken!" Ford said.

Stanley sat in it anyways and held up some keys from under the seat, jingling them around before turning the cart on with a surprising start. "It works!"

Ford was confused but didn't have time to think about it as the monster pushed some trees back to roar at them. He held in another scream and jumped in beside Ley. "Drive, drive, DRIVE!"

Ley slammed his foot on the gas pedal and mud spewed up before it slowly pulled itself out and gained immediate speed through the woods. Both boys began screaming again as they hit everything in the way; bushes, tree limbs, squirrels. The distance between them and the gnomes became much larger and Ford started to nervously laugh as the roaring was even a bit quieter now.

He turned back to Ley, panting. He was also panting, and had better control of the cart now. Ley glanced over and said, "There is GNOME way we escaped that!"

He chuckled at the pun before gasping im fear as they bumped over a large root. "WATCH THE ROAD, WATCH THE ROAD!"

The cart drove right out of the trees into a clearer area. "Look! It's the Shack!" He turned to see Ley was right, and Ford was never happier to see the old run down place. He started to think about it; if they had ended up here, they must've taken a left instead of a right maybe...

As they were around halfway back, it started to rain gnomes around the cart. "What the-!" One grabbed onto his seat and hissed. Stanley leaned over and punched it off, causing the cart to swerve drastically. "OH, PLEASE PAY ATTENTION!"

The cart stopped just outside of the Shack, having run out of fuel almost completely. They jumped out and pushed or threw the flying gnomes away. "Hey!" Ford turned. "Take this!" Ley tossed the rake to him and nodded. He smirked back and started swiping the gnomes together and tossing them out of the way. Ley was waving around a weedwacker, turning it off and on. Each one began running back to the woods, and the monster was no longer in its monster form, having thrown too many of its components.

Jeff stepped up from behind other gnomes. "You're coming with us! Nobody can hurt me without consequences!" Stanley raised his weedwacker and spun it, Ford himself tapping his palm with the rake's handle threateningly.

"You know what? We can go, we can go! For now! But you'll get what's coming, even if it's not from us!" he pointed at them, and ran off in fear when the weedwacker was spun again closer to him.

He relaxed and looked back sombrely at Ley. "I'm sorry..."

"I said to stop saying that!" he interrupted. "It's fine, really! That was the best adventure we've had so far here! You really can't stay sad after that, can you?" Ford smiled back at him and laughed quietly. Ley opened his arms. "Awkward sibling hug?"

"Awkward sibling hug."

"...pat pat."

Going back inside, Mabel frowned at the boys. "Where have you two been? It's been hours! And- Why are you two so messy?" They looked at eachother, not knowing what to say. She looked outside the window beside the table. "Look, it's already getting d- Is that a golf cart?"

They shared another surprised glance. "We found it in the woods," Ford spoke up. "We drove it here to get back faster...after all the papers were up and spending so much time out there doing that." He shrugged subtly to Ley.

She stared out at it longer. "It looks like the one we lost weeks ago! Besides the 'Gnomes Rule' an 'Shmebulock' grafitti. However you found it out there, well done!" She looked back to them as they started heading off to their room. "Hey boys? That cart had a free reward from the gift shop for its return... And I was already thinking, you help out so much around here, too... Why don't you help yourselves and pick sething out, eh?" She smiled to them.

Smiling back tiredly, both boys ran to the shelves and boxes in the corner. Ford knew what he wanted if he could buy one, so he went straight to it. The wall was lined with hats and snowglobes, the lower half being a bunch of brown jackets with fuzz on top. The tags read "Real Explorer's Jacket!" with a picture of the guy from the Beans cans giving a thumbs up. He put it on and looked in the mirror, the jacket fiting perfectly. "Nice..."

He turned around to see Stanley digging through a large box. He jumped and had to readjust his glasses when he raised something up quickly with one arm. "Aha! Grappling hook!"

Mabel nervously smiled. "Wouldn't you prefer something less...in the recall box?"

Ley pulled the trigger and was lifted into the air via ceiling board. "Grappling Hook!" She sighed and laughed to herself, he giggled too.

"How are you getting down, Bro?"

Twenty minutes to midnight now, but Ford stayed sitting up in bed. He held a flashlight in one hand as he continued reading through the pages of the strange journal. He was muttering to himself, "There's so many things in this book... I think the Author might've been onto something here. Well, maybe other than that stuff about trust." He turned and smiled as he watched his brother laying peacfully belly-down in his own bed. When someone's always there for you the way he was, you can probably trust them with your life. Maybe the Author didn't have anyone to trust, but he was glad he did. "Goodnight Bro."

Zhofrph Edfn Wr Judylwb Idoov


	2. The Tale of the Wobblegonker

Episode 2

An old, beat up car speeds through into an open parking lot. There thankfully wasn't many other cars or any people around to get hurt, and everybody made it out of the way in time. It drove around in a half-circle and backed jerkily up into a space to park.

Ford and Stan step out of the backdoors and slammed them shut. Ford turned around and placed his hand over his mouth. "I think I'm gonna puke..."

Stan raised his arms upon closing his door and ran around to his brother. "Woo! That was awesome! Let's do it again!"

Mabel stepped around and patted Ford's back before grabbing both boys' hands. "You're ok, honey. Some fun and relaxation will calm your stomach right down!"

He groaned as they walked along toward the shore. Grauntie Mabel had suggested they have a day out in the public lake. It sounded nice, as he thought it would be like the lake at home where they collected driftwood to build and explored the beach. However, this lake was different...

It was a little too 'public' for him.

Too many people were wandering around here. Back in New Jersey, other people were rarely at the lake ever, meaning the boys had all the sand to themselves. That was another thing, there seemed to be so little sand going around... He sighed again, this time less from sickness and shook his hand out of hers, putting it back in his jacket pocket.

She led them to a small restaurant that looked much more like some Hawaiian bar, with a crowd that was gathering loudly outside of it, so the group passed with Ford stopping to see what was going on. The center of attention seemed to be a young boy around their age, looking hysterical, waving his arms and sweating profusely.

"I told you! I saw some kinda weird creature out there! It was big, and dark, and had long teeth going in different directions!" he shouted. The two police women next to him seemed to be the main target he was aiming for with his yelling.

The shorter of the two stepped forward, Ford squinted and saw the nametag read 'Sheriff Candy', and put her hand on his shoulder. She gave him a soft look but spoke condescendingly. "Listen, calm down, kid! There is no monsters out there, you just saw some driftwood or something, happens all the time."

Not being calming at all, she didn't calm the boy any, he just continued to yell back. Ford felt someone grab his shoulder and pull him backward. He turned to see Graunti Mabel pulling him and Ley back, biting her lip. "Lets go now, no reason to watch this since we aren't involved."

The crowd behind them laughed again and he could only assume it was at that kid. He thought about going out to the lake to find that monster himself, but there was no way Mabel would let them go, though...

She brought them into the restaurant and sat them down at a booth. As they got comfortable, he thought he should try ro ask anyway. "Hey Grauntie Mabel? Can I go down to lake myself? I'm not really hungry after the cartrip here..."

She bit her lip again. "No! It's too dangerous without an adult, what if you got kidnapped or hurt?"

"What if I go with Ley? Maybe he's not an adult, but I wouldn't be alone," he shrugged awkwardly. She sighed and pinched her nose.

"No... I don't want you going down there right now. Maybe after lunch or another time," she said. "End of story..."

He leaned back in the big booth and glanced at Stan. He noticed that his brother didn't look so happy anymore, staring at the table blankly. Leaning over, he whispered, "Hey Ley, what's wrong?"

Stan looked over at him and frowned. "Nothing... Just that kid was being made fun of, they could've just left him alone though..." Ford smiled sympathetically at him, and got an idea.

"Well, let's go back to the shore and we'll try to go down and see if he's ok then?" he whispered back. Stan smiled a little and nodded gratefully. He sat back down and both boys looked at Mabel when the waiter came to take their orders.

She smiled at the waiter and giggled. "I should be the waiter 'cos I've been waiting for you my whole life, cutie." She finger-gunned and winked at him and the kids groaned.

Stan sat up straight and asked, "Can we go Grauntie? We won't be long." She nodded and gave an 'mhmm' and continued to flirt with terrible puns. The boys instantly jumped out of the booth and ran to the door, sprinting outside.

"Freedom!" Ford shouted and ran down to the lake. Stan caught up and overtook him quickly, making it there first.

"We're gunna find that kid and make sure he's ok, right?" he asked. Ford nodded and looked around. He didn't see the boy yet, but if he was still here then his bright purple shirt would give him away in no time.

It only took them a few minutes of wandering around the shore to see him sitting by himself behind a dirt pile. Stan ran right toward him. "Hey you!"

The boy looked up and his face turned from sadness to fear. Before he could move, Stan was already in front of him with a hand out. "Are you ok? Those people were bein' nasty to ya and that wasn't fair."

His face slowly turned back as he seemed to realize that this was a much better situation than whatever he had thought before. Ford slowly walked over as they talked. "Yeah, I-I'm ok... Thank you kindly."

"What's your name? I'm Ford," he nodded to the boy."

"And I'm Stan!"

"Oh, well I'm Fiddleford Hadren," he answered and blushed, fixing his glasses.

Ford rubbed his chin. "Hmm... That's too long... I'm gunna call you F instead."

He nervously rubbed the back of his neck but laughed quietly. "O-Ok..."

Stan stepped back in. "What was going on back there?"

Fiddleford looked down at his feet and mumbled, "I... I know I saw somethin' out there, it was big an' had sharp teeth, and it's roar was like...a bear that stepped on a lego." Stan and Ford shared a confused look. "But nobody else heard or seen it, so they wouldn't believe me... Even the cops laughed at me."

Ford squinted and puffed his cheek out. Maybe they could find this monster now? If he brought that in, F would be happy, and surely the town would think of Ford as a hero, and everyone would respect them...

Stan was more concerned with how Fiddleford said he was treated and was going off about how they can't just treat somebody like that over not seeing something too. F interrupted his ranting with, "What if we go out and find the monster then? They would HAVE to believe you!"

F's eyes widened and sparkled, and he stood up with a huge smile. "You would really do that for me? You guys are amazin'!" Ford nodded and felt the appraisal feeding his ego.

"First, we need to find out where it is!" he said with a finger up. "Then, we will look around there for clues. And THEN, we'll capture it! We're gonna need a net or something..."

"What if we get cameras and just capture it on photograph?" F asked. Ford frowned, he wanted to be the person who actually brought the beast out. But, it did make more sense to take a picture for saftey and cost reasons.

"Alright," he sighed. "But I don't have any cameras..."

"That's alright, my dad works the shop here, we can get the cameras and a boat from there," F said.

Ford nodded and looked at Stan. "You ready for an adventure?" Stan smiled bigger and nodded roughly. "Great! Fiddie, take us to the boat!"

The two brothers sat outside waiting. It had been a few minutes since Fiddleford went into the small wooden gift shop and Ford was running out of patience. They needed to get this done NOW, or someone else might get to the monster first, especially since F had told everyone it was there already...

Finally, Fiddleford ran out the door with four cameras in his arms. "Hey guys! So I've got us one camera each, and one extra just in case!"

Ford nodded and took the camera he handed him. "What took you so long?"

"Pa wasn't in there, so I checked on his laptop to see if there was anything similar to the creature I saw... Sorry," he apologized. "But I did find something, I think the monster is called a 'Wobblegonker'! It's supposedly a 'mythical beast' that doesn't exist..."

"I'm sure it ain't We're still gonna look for it and find it!" Stan said. He put the extra camera in his own pocket and turned away. "So, let's go!"

Ford leaned over and whispered. "Ley, we still need a boat..."

"Right, I knew that."

Fiddleford took them to the next available boat in the field. "We can all fit on this easily, so it shouldn't be a problem." They pushed it into the water and climbed in. Stan was bouncing up and down in his seat while Fiddleford watched his reflection. Ford sat in the front of the boat and smiled out at the waters.

"So, F, where did you see it at?" he put his hands on his hips and turned around.

Fiddleford looked up and pointed to an island in the mideast of the lake. "I was practicing rowing and yodeling over there when it showed up." Ford made a face at the yodeling part, but decided not to say anything.

They all picked up their oars at the same time and headed for the island. Once there, they stepped out and pulled the boat up just enough that it wouldn't get pulled back into the water and go anywhere on it's own. Ford immediately began to look for clues. "Remember boys, this is a HUNT! This could take all day! Or more!"

Stan spoke up with a nervous voice. "Uh hey, Fiddleford? What did you say the monster looked like?"

Fiddleford looked back from the bushes he was by. "It was large, and dark green, and had big teeth. Maybe had some fins on it's head, and it's head was pretty small besides it's muzzle."

Stan was quiet for another moment while they looked back on their searches. "Well... You two might wanna see this then..."

Now he caught Ford's attention. He and Fiddleford ran back to him and saw half a dark green, finned head with yellow eyes glaring at them from right above the lake line. Before Ford could say anything or Fiddleford could scream, the head shot up out of the water and roared loudly. It was much bigger than Ford had thought it would be, and he was frozen for a moment with the others. He felt Stan pull him away and he nearly fell over. Catching his balance, he saw a large green tail swipe strongly through right where he was standing before and he shuddered.

"RUN!" Stan shouted and pointed back in the direction of the ship. All three boys sprinted to it and hopped in. Ford turned and snapped the camera many times in a row hopping to get a good shot at least.

They rowed and tried to go quickly, but the monster was right behind them. It swam quickly over and launched back up, roaring again. The waves it caused knocked the boat around and Ford to feel sick again.

Fiddleford was the only one still rowing at the moment and was having troubles against the waves. He decided to go with them for the moment and worry more on not being flipped over. Stan threw his camera at the sea-beast and shouted, "Get away from us!" Fiddleford tried to help by getting his camera out but another wave took him by surprise and the camera was thrown into the water. He tried to catch it and fell out himself.

He screamed as he hit the water, only for something to tightly grab his wrist and pull him out. He started to pray in a panic and gasped once again the water again, glad to see it was just Ford.

Stan threw the extra camera at the monster but it didn't stop at all. He looked ahead and only saw a rocky wall in the way by a waterfall. "Ford! Fiddleford! We need to turn the boat! C'mon!"

F looked up at the rocks as well, but stopped. "Wait! I think I read something about a waterfall cave! We need to go though the waterfall in the middle, I think, Ley!"

"You THINK?" Stan shouted back.

Ford pulled the Journal out from his jacket's inside pocket and flipped through pages hurriedly. "Just DO IT!"

Fiddleford picked up a paddle and tried to help Stan usher the boat straight. "Almost there!" The Wobblegonker roared louder than before and dove down right next to them, causing the boat to lurch forward, right toward the wall. Ford hid the journal back in his jacket and all three boys took a deep breath and braced themselves for impact.

However, instead of hitting a rock wall, once on the other side of the waterfall they hit air again before falling and rolling onto a floor. The trio all laid there for a moment, panting.

There was another roar from outside, barely audible from the waterfall between them and the beast. Ford sat up and looked around. The cave was dark and the only light that came in shown through the water. A bright light suddenly blinding him and he rubbed his eyes.

Fiddleford was holding a flashlight, and pointed it up away from Ford. "Sorry. Always be prepared." He shook it and shrugged. Ford nodded and smiled. Fiddleford moved the light around and saw the boat half-destroyed by the impact and grabbed his hair. "Oh sweet creamed corn, Pa's gunna kill me..."

Looking around again with light showed that this cave was pretty small, with surprisingly some boxes and things stacked off to one side. He got up and walked over to the stuff with Stan.

"Look, a real treasure chest!" Stan said happily. He tried to open it but the lock remained closed. He puffed his cheek in disappontment. "Darn..."

Ford looked at the other stuff before pulling out the Journal again. "Huh... I... I've seen some of these things in here. I think this place belonged to the Author."

Both boys turned around. "You mena, the person that wrote that?" Stan asked. He nodded.

Fiddleford got closer and looked through a small box. Stan asked, "So... What would it mean if it WAS owned by the Author?"

Ford looked back at the Journal. "Well... I guess it would just mean we could find some clues as to who he was." He sat down and started to look through a box next to him on the ground.

He pulled out a few papers. "Hey F? Can you shine that here, please?" he asked and sat down. Fiddleford obliged and he saw the page had a drawing of the Wobblegonker on it with details about its life style and needs on it.

"Woaaah," Stan whispered as he sat down beside him and looked over it.

Ford looked at the second page and began to read the non-smudged or ripped parts of it out loud. "Day 3 The egg that we found has hatched last night. ...named it Flipflop, I think that's ridiculous but he seems to like it. Fli... is not dangerous. Unless you don't feed him, he WILL bite your hand. Ouch. M...we had to let him go this morning after he got too big for the house. There was no way...we could keep him anymore. Somebody would notice eventually. Day 45 with Flipfop. I have continued to meet him and he lets me use him to ride to S...butt Island. There may be a cave in that ...nearby, must investigate with Flipflop. Day 47 We found the cave! I should tell her about it soon. I would also like to study the life there sometime." Stan giggled and muttered, "Butt Island."

"That writing and the pages look pretty close to the ones in the Journal," Ford said. He put it on top of the open Journal to see them side-by-side. The only difference was the neatness of these pages. "This place IS the Author's!" he shouted in joy. "How will we get all this stuff out?"

"I think a better question is, 'how are we going to get home'?" He looked at Stan. He was looking sadly at the waterfall. "Our boat is destroyed now."

He sat for a moment and thought. "You know what? I'm willing to bet that Wobblegonker is actually the same on in these pages... Flipflop. Maybe he can ferry us across like he ferried the Author? There's a bunch of commands he knows here for doing things."

Stan looked worried still but shrugged. "It couldn't hurt, if you're sure. That sounds like our only option, too."

"I'll go try to say the commands," Fiddleford offered. "I'm good with animals, my Ma has a barn filled with all kinds of animals back home." Ford reluctantly nodded and showed him the commands.

He looked at the papers in his hands. His jacket pockets didn't have enough room for all this stuff, and it would end up destroyed by water or folding. Deciding it would be better to leave it, he sighed, took the flashlight and took pictures with the remaining film on the last camera before putting thag in his pocket.

They all stepped outside the waterfall and saw the Wobblegonker waiting with it's head on the water as before. It got back up and moved extremely close with a growl. Fidldeford stood still in front of it and spoke in a stern, loud voice. "Flipflop."

It stopped moving and stared. It's head tipped sideways as it seemed to recognize the name. 'It really is him!' Ford thought.

"Flipop!" Fiddleford said. "Lift!"

Flipflop waited a moment and slowly moved his head down to pick him up gently by his shirt. He sat him down on his neck. "You two say it too!"

"Lift, Flipop!..."

"Uh, lift!"

After they were all on his neck, Fiddleford shouted, "Home!" Flipflop began swimming carefully back towards the shore, staying along the wall. Fiddleford was petting it's neck as the other two boys were in amazement.

The lake monster lowered his head and let them all down back onto the ground, and looked at Fiddleford. He giggled and pet him. "Thank you!" It growled softly in response and moved back into the lake.

"That...was AWESOME!" Stan shouted.

Fiddleford shushed him. "Hey uh, guys. I-I-I think we should keep Flipflop a secret now." He noticed Ford about to argue and finished, "What if... What if they were to take him away from his home? Or hurt him in some way? He's actually tame, wouldn't that be...wrong?"

Ford thought about it. That was true, it hadn't actually hurt them, and the Author seemed to care about this beast a lot, too. It would be disrespectful to him, and cruel to Flipflop after he helped them... F sighed and nodded. "Alright. We tell no one about him then, right?"

They all put their hands on eachothers and agreed. "But we can use him to reach the island and cave still, right? And maybe feed him..?" Fiddleford asked.

"Of course! He's part of our pet family now!" Stan answered quickly. "So just don't tire him out or put him in danger."

Fiddleford nodded. "Let's get goin' now, three kids in the "do not enter" area seems a little suspicious, and I'm already in enough trouble as it is now..."

There was a scream as they walked back onto the beach, and Mabel ran out from seemingly nowhere to pick up Stan and Ford. "Where did you two go? I was worried sick!"

"S-Sorry Grauntie..." Ford said.

"You said we could go..." Stan looked up guiltily at her.

She held them closer. "I thought you meant to the bathroom! Then you didn't come back and I couldn't find you anywhere!"

The brothers glanced at eachother and frowned. "We're sorry..."

"Why are you two wet?" she asked when she was a little calmer. "Where did you go?"

Ford looked to Stan for an answer. "We were just swimming with our new friend, we didn't mean to be gone so long."

She was quiet for a long time before letting out a sigh. "Boys, no more leaving when I already say no, please. I'm old, my old person heart can't take that again!"

"Yes Grauntie Mabel," both said.

"C'mon, tell your friend bye so we can go back home and get some dinner..." she headed back to the car. They looked at Fiddleford as he stepped back up.

"You said we're friends?" he asked.

"Of course!" Stan said. "We didn't just spend the whole afternoon with you to say 'eh, don't like him'!"

"Yeah F, of course you're our friend!" Ford replied with a smile. Fiddleford smiled at them both and teared up.

"Th-Thank you."

Stan raised a hand to both of them. "Highsix circle, all around!" they both highfived him back and Fiddleford blinked at Ford for a moment, as if just now noticing his hand from Stan's statement. He blushed and was about to move back when Fiddleford gave him one and smiled. Ford smiled back widely.

They said goodbye to Fiddleford as he went to find his dad, and ran back to the car. Stan's stomach grolwed loudly and Ford laughed. "Now you sound like Fli- A monster!"

He giggled back. "Yeah. Whats for dinner Grauntie?"

"Probably GummyBear sandwhiches and Mabeljuice. We need to go shopping soon."

Ilgg dfwxdoob zhqw wr ihhg Iolsiors lqvwhdg dqg grhv vr hyhub gdb dw wkh vdph wlphv.


End file.
